Chinese travelers want to go abroad again. That much is clear from this month’s lead story. What’s less clear is whether the industry can get them there.
A Dragon Trail survey of 310 Chinese travel agents found demand for outbound trips climbing sharply this year, with summer bookings up too. But flights to Japan are running at less than half of 2019 levels, and Thailand isn’t much better off. Airlines, visa offices, and airports now have the harder job of catching up.
India is chasing its own kind of momentum, from a different direction. Air India has hired a new CEO to steer a turnaround the airline badly needs. Hyatt, for its part, is looking at India not as an add-on market but as one worth building around, with a possible domestic-focused brand and acquisitions in the mix.
China’s hotel and travel sectors, meanwhile, are sorting out what comes after years of turbulence. Trip.com is still absorbing the cost of an antitrust case that forced it to shut down a key tool, with the damage now visible in its earnings. And a wave of hotel investment sweeping the country turns out to be more than picking over distressed assets — investors are finding real value, not just bargains.
Demand, in other words, has returned. What each of these stories is really about is who gets there first.
Skift Aviation Forum
Profitability, capacity, AI, loyalty: the questions that set aviation's agenda for the year get argued out in one room, in one day.
The CEOs of International Airlines Group, Breeze Airways, and Los Angeles World Airports are among the first confirmed for the 6th annual Skift Aviation Forum, November 12 at TWA Hotel, JFK.
CLARITYPAY + SKIFT
On Airline Weekly Lounge, ClarityPay CEO Houman Motaharian explains how its JetBlue partnership could turn financing into a loyalty engine.
EDITOR’S PICKS
Air India and IndiGo Just Hired CEOs for Two Very Different Global Goals
by Peden Doma Bhutia
August 6, 2026
Neither airline hired for today’s problems. Air India is trying to make a 600-aircraft expansion look orderly, while IndiGo is trying to ensure its global ambitions don’t arrive before its widebody fleet.
Hyatt Weighs ‘India-for-India’ Brand and Acquisitions for 5x Growth: Exclusive
by Peden Doma Bhutia
August 3, 2026
The world’s biggest hotel companies seem to have settled the “why India?” debate. The real competition now is over execution — acquisitions or partnerships, luxury or midscale, metros or smaller cities.
Trip.com Killed Tool at the Center of China’s Antitrust Case — and It’s Already Hitting Profits
by Peden Doma Bhutia
July 27, 2026
Trip.com will now have to prove that it can keep hotels, sustain growth, and defend its market position without the commercial tools that regulators ruled crossed the line.
IndiGo Co-Founder: Airport-Airline Ownership Is a ‘Massive Conflict of Interest’
by Peden Doma Bhutia
July 23, 2026
If the idea is to break the two-airline duopoly, the irony is hard to miss. India could end up replacing airline concentration with something even more powerful — a conglomerate that controls the skies, the gates, and everything in between.
Indian Hotels Company Targets Switzerland and Southeast Asia; Dubai Rebound Stalls
by Peden Doma Bhutia
July 22, 2026
IHCL would have preferred to enter Switzerland first, but instead chose Frankfurt, where strong India connectivity promised quicker returns, rather than rushing into a costlier, lower-yield Swiss market.
